War Update

War Update

Haiti: Haitians have taken to the street to protest the UN presence in their country, a police station was burned and tear gas was used to disperse the crowd.[1] The UN mission in Haiti brought cholera to Haiti over two years ago, so far causing more than 8,000 deaths and 600,000 illnesses.[2] The UN has refused to allocate the funds necessary to end the epidemic,[3] despite the nearly $677 million spent on maintaining the nearly 10,000-strong UN military occupation of the country.[4] Haiti has been under UN control since the 2004 US coup ousted their democratically elected government and installed a regime marred by electoral fraud and opposition exclusion,[5] executive overreach,[6] and paramilitarism.[7] The current government is powerless to stop the exploitation of Haiti’s mineral resources by international mining companies who were recently granted one sixth of the total land in Haiti and pay only 2.5% royalties.[8] International sweatshops have also setup in Haiti’s “free trade zones” where they are exempt from taxes, duties, and can pay workers $4.50/day and receive subsidies. In 2011 one such complex, the Caracol Industrial Park, forcefully displaced 366 farming families who had previously produced 1,400 metric tons of food/year.[9]

Syria: The US has facilitated an air drop of 3,000 tons of weaponry for the Free Syrian Army (FSA), and are training FSA fighters in Jordan.[10] The US has pledged an additional $60 million to purchase armored vehicles and other equipment for the FSA.[11] Israel, recipient of nearly $4 billion in US military aid each year,[12] has been treating wounded FSA fighters.[13] Israel has permitted a US energy company to extract oil from the Golan Heights,[14] Syrian land occupied since 1967 that provides one third of Israel’s water. The FSA have clashed with Hezbollah in Lebanon vowing to eliminate the military/political organization in Lebanon.[15]

Libya: Ongoing inter-militia fighting has recently displaced more than 3,000 people[16] and disrupted oil exports. Armed resistance to the NATO-installed[17] government was finally quelled in the brutal siege[18] of Bani Walid in October 2012, but the country is now under the control of militias[19] and protest continues in the face of repression.[20] The south has been declared a closed zone of military operations under the control of a military governor.[21] Exteremist groups, including Ansar al-Sharia (the group accused of leading the assault on the embassy in Benghazi that killed US ambassador Stephens[22]), control large areas. Libyans now face a myriad of difficulties including: restriction of free speech;[23] drug, arms, and human trafficking;[24] a soaring murder rate;[25] persecution of Christians and Sufis;[26] and the repression of women.[27] The US has deployed marines allegedly to combat terrorism.[28]

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